


See you through

by couldvelovedyou



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 22:25:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/couldvelovedyou/pseuds/couldvelovedyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cristiano gets injured in the Clásico and is out for the rest of the season. Leo helps him through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	See you through

**Author's Note:**

> Second La Liga Clásico of the 2012/2013 season. Manchster United UCL game three days after.
> 
> I started writing this a while before the actual game (and ended it a lot after, oops) so Iker isn't injured and the result and everything that follows is lies (also, that's why Milan is in there and not Bayern, and well, a lot of other things as you'll see).

It's the 70th minute of the Liga Clásico and the referee blows his whistle. Leo watches as Gerard picks himself up and extends a hand down, but Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't take it. Leo can't see what's going on on the grass because he's too far away but Gerard is tall and so Leo can see the concerned look on his face, and he watches as his friend waves to the sidelines and medics run in with a stretcher.

The Bernabeú explodes around them, hateful songs chanted and Cristiano's name being called over and over, but then he's out, the game goes on and Leo focuses on the ball, runs and runs and shoots it into the net. It ends 2-0.

-

The boos are deafening as they walk towards the tunnel and Leo watches Gerard's face falls as Iker waves him away. They enter the dressing room and Gerard sits down and sighs loudly. "I didn't mean to hurt him."

Leo grabs a towel. "I know," he says. Gerard's face picks up a little and Leo turns to the showers.

Later, Xavi comes in and looks around. "Broken ankle," he says into the space and the people around him. "He's going to need surgery."

Leo doesn't talk, but he moves towards Gerard and places a hand on his shoulder. When the room goes loud again, he quietly says, "we could go to the hospital," and Gerard, eyes a little red and lips kind of shivering, gives him a grateful nod.

-

The drive to the hospital is quiet. Madrid is alive, people wearing white scarves talk animatedly on the streets, pointing at ankles and thinking of Manchester United.

Leo walks into the waiting room with Gerard and Xavi, who is leading the way. It's not that he was expecting a party, but he also wasn't expecting such dirty looks thrown their way as they come inside. It's extremely uncomfortable; he barely knows any of the people in the room other than pre-game handshakes. He searches around for his national team friends, but Gonzalo shakes his head at him while Ángel is just looking down. At the other end of the room are Iker, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso, faces close together and deep in conversation, while another group formed of Pepe, Fabio Coentrão, Marcelo and Kaká does the same.

Sergio spots them first and walks over. "What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to show our support. See how he's doing."

Iker joins them. "It's bad."

Gerard looks down, then back up at Iker. "Can I go in to see him?"

Sergio's smile is bitter and Iker just looks upset. "He doesn't even want to see us. Any of us," he says, making a small gesture at the group of Portuguese players behind him.

"I'll just be a minute."

"Sorry."

"He's my friend, I just want to talk to him."

"He's not your friend," Sergio speaks up. "You two have barely talked since we won the Copa against you two years ago."

Leo is surprised. He looks at Gerard who looks ashamed, raises his hands in defeat and walks out of the room. Leo stays there with Xavi who gets a stern look on his face. "Unnecessary. He feels bad enough as it is."

Leo can tell it was the wrong thing to say from the look on Sergio's face, and he's right when he speaks. "Yeah, well, how do you think Cris feels? We have an important match in three days and his season and ours is basically over. We don't have time to smile at the person responsible." He walks away after that, intercepted by Kaká who tries to calm him down.

Iker touches Xavi's shoulder. "Thank you for coming, but maybe you should go back to Barcelona now. Everyone here is in a really bad mood and especially Cristiano. I don't think there's anything you can do."

Leo thinks that maybe there _is_ something he can do, or at least try to do. He thinks of golden balls, golden cups, golden boots, pichichi lists, national colors and armbands, responsibilities and expectations and stands tall. "I'm going in."

No one moves as he walks towards the closed door until he touches the doorknob, and Iker stops him. "You shouldn't."

"I'm the only one who understands," Leo bears his eyes deeply into him, and Iker stands back, nodding, understanding as well.

-

"Get out," is the first thing Cristiano says to him when he opens the door to his room and walks in. Leo doesn't listen. He walks over to the bed and sits on the chair next to it, looks at Cristiano quietly. Cristiano turns his head away from him and stares at his IV drip instead, whispering "get out" again.

It's quiet for five minutes, then ten. Leo just looks at his hands, contemplating. When it's been 15 minutes, he opens a drawer and takes out a remote. There's got to be a match somewhere in the world that's happening right now that he can watch.

When Cristiano hears the noise from the TV, he turns to face Leo again and glares at him. Leo gives him a small smile, shrugs, and focuses on the game. Cristiano makes a frustrated grunt, but eventually settles in and watches as well.

After an hour the game fades out and Leo glances over. "When's your surgery?"

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay," Leo says. "I'll come by in the morning."

He walks out after that, and Cristiano is left staring in disbelief.

-

When Leo walks in at 9am, Cristiano is surprised. He didn't expect him to actually follow through on his words.

Leo ignores that and raises his arms to show the bags he's carrying. From one bag he pulls out croissants and coffee, from the other a bunch of movies and books.

"No paper?" Cristiano raises an eyebrow and Leo shrugs. "Didn't think you'd want to see that." Then he searches Cristiano's face. "Most of it is about how Madrid's fucked without you so maybe you would want to see that…"

"Ha," is the only comment that follows and Cristiano stuffs his mouth with the food while Leo grabs a coffee cup, pops in a movie and they settle into silence again.

-

Most of the Real Madrid squad shows up around 11. There's a hesitant knock on the door and Leo walks over to open it without asking Cristiano if it's okay, which Cristiano finds weird but he keeps quiet.

Leo comes face to face with Álvaro Arbeloa, who stares at him speechless. Leo moves to the side to motion them all in and then he leaves, the faint sound of someone asking Cristiano 'how do you feel?' behind him as he closes the door and lets them be.

He sits in the waiting room for a while before Xabi Alonso walks in quietly and sits down next to him. "Didn't expect to see you here," he says. "I thought you all left yesterday."

"They did. I stayed."

"For how long?"

"I don't know."

"We're leaving tomorrow for England and I just want to make sure he'll be okay here."

Leo nods at that and follows Xabi back into the room, where he watches the players hug Cristiano, wish him luck on his surgery and give Leo warning looks.

"We'll come by tomorrow before we head to the airport," Iker says when he's the last one there, and Cristiano bites his lower lip and nods.

The room is quiet again and Leo sits back down, contemplating. "They're really protective over you. I thought you all didn't get along."

Cristiano gets sarcastic. "They're just scared I'd bite your head off and they'd have to deal with the bad image of Madrid ruining the best most incredible footballer of all times."

Leo rolls his eyes. "Just when you're sure the newspapers are lying, you realize at least some of what they say is absolutely true."

"What? That I'm an ass?"

Leo chuckles. He grabs his phone and starts looking through it when suddenly Cristiano speaks again. "Do you really think I'm an ass?"

"I don't know you," Leo answers truthfully after a few quiet beats and Cristiano says 'okay' a bunch of times and nods to himself.

It takes a while but finally he speaks out loud again. "We had a bit of a hard time after the Euro's."

Leo looks at him expectantly.

"Things were awkward for a while, but we got over it."

"That… makes sense."

"It does?"

"Yes," Leo laughs. "I remember the World Cup. They were all so happy and I really hated them."

Cristiano makes an impression of Iker lifting a trophy and they both laugh.

-

Leo waits in his room while Cristiano is in surgery. The nurses bring him back when he's still knocked out and say it'll be about an hour, so Leo settles in with a book until he hears Cristiano stir. Leo knows he's in pain by the way his face crumples and his eyes are squeezed shut, so he clicks the nurse's button and talks to her when one comes in.

It's only when she leaves that Cristiano opens his eyes and they settle on Leo, full of hate. "What are you doing here?"

Leo knows it's the pain talking, so he shakes his head once and doesn't answer.

"You must be so happy," Cristiano laughs and it's ugly. "You get to be everything now, don't you? You get all the awards and all the trophies and the pichichi and the Balon D'Or without even having to compete for it. _So_ happy."

The drugs start to kick in and he gets groggy, but his eyes never leave Leo's. The physical pain is gone but the emotional one is there and it's stronger and Leo knows, ever since he got to the hospital he's been imagining being kept off the pitch for the rest of the season and losing, losing, losing, watching from the sidelines and being helpless, _so helpless_ , watching the ceremony in Zurich from home and Real Madrid winning La Liga, the Copa, the Champions League, the papers praising others and he's forgotten, he's empty handed, he can't even kick a ball- he just knows.

He stays at Cristiano's side until he falls asleep and only then Leo feels comfortable enough to leave.

-

The team gets there in the morning like promised. José Mourinho pats the top of Cristiano's head and whispers to him, Fabio Coentrão holds his hand for a while as they talk in quick Portuguese, Marcelo drops off an iPod and headphones and declares 'it's the best music I've ever heard' and makes Cristiano promise to text him as he goes through the collection. Sergio promises to come visit as soon as they get back and Iker says they'll miss him, and then Cristiano wants Xabi and Álvaro to memorize the English he wants them to pass on to Ferguson and he says it over and over until they're all laughing and it's time for them to leave.

"We're going to win," Mesut Özil says and squeezes Cristiano's hand, and they do. After he scores the first goal of the night, Özil holds up seven fingers at the camera, and two more goals follow- Higuaín (at which Leo smiles widely) and Khedira- and Real Madrid are through to the next round.

The hours before the match Cristiano is a ball of nerves, mumbling to himself all kinds of things, from 'I can't watch this' to 'I can't believe I'm not there' to 'it should fucking start already' to closing his eyes when the actual feed starts and the line ups show on the screen. Then his eyes are open so wide Leo thinks he's never going to blink again, and Cristiano watches the warm ups like his life depended on it.

When the Champions League theme starts playing and the players go out on the pitch, they're all wearing white shirts and Cristiano stares. Manchester United's shirts read 'Get well soon Ronnie' while Real Madrid's read 'Ánimo Cristiano' and Leo hands him a tissue and looks away. The referee signals for the game to start and they're both lost in it. Later, people would ask him what he and Cristiano have in common and Leo would just laugh because it's the most obvious thing in the world.

-

After the match, Leo is hungry. "Cristiano," he says.

Cristiano turns slowly from the TV to look at him like he's never seen him before.

"I'm going to get some food, do you want anything?"

After a few moments of silence, Cristiano nods. Leo walks to the cafeteria and gets them dinner, and after he comes back and grabs his fork, Cristiano says "Cris."

"Mm?" Leo looks up at him, confused.

"Cris," Cristiano repeats. "My friends… call me Cris."

Leo smiles into his meal. "Okay."

They watch the post-game interviews of the players and coaches, and analyze the game along with the commentators. As the highlights play, Leo turns to Cristiano. "Are you happy?"

Cristiano's quick to answer "yes" but his face is anguished. "I wish I could have been there," he whispers.

Leo keeps on. "Did you see that play with Ángel when he ran up and had no one to pass to? You could have made it there and scored that."

Cristiano's face whips around to stare at him. He searches for what Leo assumes is any hint of sarcasm. When he finds none, he chuckles. "Yeah, I could have."

-

Leo comes in with a wheelchair. "Let's go out," he says cheerfully.

Cristiano eyes the wheelchair like it's his worst enemy.

"It's just for now, Cris," Leo knows what he's thinking. "Just to get some air."

Cristiano groans, but throws his blankets off. Leo goes to his side to help him off the bed.

"You think you're strong enough, midget?"

Leo just laughs as Cristiano leans on him and makes his way to the chair. He wheels him out of the room and into a backyard with a few benches, sits in front of him.

Cristiano has his eyes focused on two kids playing around with a ball across from them, their grandmother in another wheelchair sitting with more family and watching as well.

"You're going to play again in no time," Leo says after a few moments of silence. "You'll be just as good."

"You're so sure."

"I am. I'll come train with you."

Cristiano stares at him. Leo smiles and shrugs.

"You keep surprising me," Cristiano shakes his head. "I just can't figure you out."

Leo shrugs again. The two boys with the ball run past them, and when they realize who they are, they stop and stare.

"Hi," Cristiano says, amused. The younger boy's eyes widen, and the older one whispers "hi" back.

Cristiano raises his eyebrows at Leo, who motions for the boys to come closer. "Do you want us to sign your ball?"

They both nod furiously. Leo walks inside to get a pen and in the meantime the younger boy touches Cristiano's knee and Cristiano looks down at his sad face.

"Does it hurt?" the boy asks as he looks at the cast on his foot.

"Just a little bit."

"Will you be okay?"

Leo comes back with pens as Cristiano says, "in no time," and gives him a thumbs-up.

"Hey," he says and hands the younger boy a pen while taking the ball from the older boy. "Do you want to draw on Cristiano's cast?"

The boy gets to work on the cast while the ball gets signed and they hand it back. The younger boy finishes his drawing and gives Leo the pen. "Thank you," he says quietly, and Leo pats his head. The boy kisses Cristiano on the cheek as they head out, and Cristiano smiles to himself. They check the drawing- it's a man kicking a ball. "Is that me?" Cristiano asks and looks again.

"I guess so, looks like a 7 there."

Leo goes behind him to push the wheelchair. "Let's get you back inside before you're swarmed," he laughs and Cristiano pouts.

Back in the room, Cristiano is back in the bed when his doctor comes in for a checkup.

"Looks to me like you can go home tonight," the doctor says. "I'll see you again when we take this cast off. Don't push it too hard," he lightly taps his leg and gives a stern look, to which Cristiano nods.

Leo pipes up when they're alone again. "I guess my time here has come to an end."

"Why?" Cristiano looks worried, and slightly disappointed.

"I have to go back to training. We have a match this Saturday."

"Oh, right," Cristiano's flustered, and sheepishly says, "I forgot."

Leo texts his agent to book him a flight out, and looks up again. "Gonzalo just texted me that they'll be here in a few hours, so you won't be alone."

Cristiano gives half a smile. "I don't care about that."

"Hey, we'll talk, okay? Watch our match."

"But…"

"What?"

"I want you to lose," he says really quickly. "I'm sorry." His eyes seems honest enough to Leo.

"It's okay, I always want you to lose too. Watch it and mock us after."

"I can do that."

Leo laughs and rolls his eyes at him. "Okay then."

-

Leo flies home. From the airport, he goes straight to training. He gets there late and everyone's already warming up. Victor whistles when he walks up. "The prodigal son returns!"

"Shut up," Leo grabs onto David to stretch. "How's your new best friend?" is what he gets in return from Villa and there are ohhh's all around.

Leo glares at them all. "Children," he mumbles and ignores their chatter ('do you think he got a little Madridista over there?' 'Maybe Ronaldo tied him up in a chair and didn't let him leave' and 'do you still love us, Leo?!' from a worried looking Cesc that almost gets to him, until Cesc tumbles over himself laughing).

Gerard waits until after practice to approach him and Leo smiles at him when he finally walks up. "He's okay," he tells him, and Gerard breathes out. "The surgery went fine and they sent him home to rest."

"Does he hate me?"

"I don't think he's mad," Leo says.

"He said that?"

Leo bites his lip and admits, "He didn't say anything, really," and Gerard's face fall.

Later that day while he's heating up some dinner, he calls Cristiano. "Hey, do you think you could call Geri and tell him you don't hate him?", and apparently he does, because the next morning Gerard is all smiles and worries-free.

"Thanks," he texts Cristiano, and gets back a ":-)".

-

He really does call Cristiano after the match.

"Hola pichichi."

"Did you like it?"

Cristiano laughs in his ear. "Not at all."

"Come on," Leo protests. "Give us _some_ props. We had a good game."

"Hey, you knew what you had coming when you called. Don't complain about it."

It goes on like that.

-

They talk before the Barcelona-Milan match but Leo is distracted and Cristiano can't get his mind away from it no matter what he tries.

"Leo, snap out of it," Cristiano says after a few moments of Leo not responding to him. "You're gonna win this stupid match and you know it."

"It's not a stupid match."

"Yes, I _know_ ," Cristiano retorts. "But you worry too much."

"You think we suck."

Cristiano laughs in his ear. "No, I don't, who told you that? I think you're great and you know you're great and come on." He basically tries to project his good thinking onto Leo and make him feel better.

"We lost," Leo whispers and his voice is so small it makes Cristiano cringe. "We lost and it was so bad…"

Cristiano knows he's talking about the dressing room and the team spirit after that loss. He can imagine. "I know but you're over that now, right? You can do this. I know you believe in your team more than that."

"Yes. I do."

"Good. Go kick some ass."

But they don't. They tie, and it's not enough to go through.

-

Cristiano gets woken up by a strong beating on his door. He stumbles out of bed and grabs his crutches, yelling out "Chill out, I'm coming" as he makes his way slowly through the hallway.

He opens the door to find a tired looking Leo, who glares at him continuously until he moves out of the way and lets him in. He closes the door behind Leo and turns around to raise an eyebrow at him.

Leo growls. "I'd hit you if you weren't on crutches."

"Lucky me," Cristiano doesn't think it's quite the right time to mention that he wouldn't go down so easy if he were fit.

Leo grabs a pillow from the couch and throws it at his head.

"What is wrong with you?!" Cristiano yells after ducking out of the way. He doesn't expect Leo to drop to the couch and put his head down between his legs.

Cristiano slowly sits down next to him and puts his crutches on the floor. He looks at him, contemplating, wondering, and reaches out a hand to touch Leo's back. When Leo doesn't move, Cristiano begins to move his hand up and down.

They sit there for a while in quiet, then Leo turns his head to look at Cristiano. "You said we'd win," he says, and it sounds half blaming even though it's not his fault.

"I'm sorry," Cristiano said, and he is; the image of this Leo is not pleasant. The guy seems defeated, depressed. Cristiano resolves to cheer him up. "Do you want to beat me at FIFA?"

Leo manages a laugh. "Yes," he says, straightens up and rubs at his eyes. They're red.

Cristiano hands him a remote, and Leo settles back on the couch and puts his legs on the table in front them. He touches a few buttons and when Cristiano looks at the screen, he sees that Leo has chosen the Argentinian national team. He shrugs, picks the Portuguese. The small versions of them shake hands.

Cristiano lets him win three games straight, and is ready to give him at least two more before putting up a decent fight, but Leo puts down the remote.

"What's wrong?"

"You're not even trying," Leo just laughs at him as he shrugs.

"It made you laugh," Cristiano points out and Leo gets a surprised look on his face for a moment before it changes to grateful. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah."

"Wanna watch a movie?" Cristiano changes the subject and Leo nods. As Cristiano goes through the channels to look for something good, Leo lies down on the couch and pushes his feet into Cristiano's lap. Cristiano wonders how Leo became so comfortable around him and in his home, and then wonders why he doesn't mind at all.

An hour into the movie, Leo's phone buzzes on the table and he reaches for it, chuckles as he picks up. Cristiano hears his side of the conversation- "Got here fine… I'm okay… it's fine… he's okay…"- and then the phone is thrust into his hand. He puts it to his ear while raising an eyebrow at Leo who whispers "It's Pipita."

Gonzalo is talking to him then, laughing and saying he just wanted to make sure Cristiano is still alive and Leo didn't bury him in the backyard. "I'm okay, Pip," he laughs back. "He went easy on me, I just got a pillow to the head," and Leo mumbles something about traitors next to him, puts on an annoyed face but breaks into a smile when Cristiano pushes a finger into his side.

-

His cast gets taken off, finally, and he's given a list of work outs he's supposed to do to get fit again on his ankle. He ends the first day at the gym in Valdebebas soaking his ankle in ice practically in tears. He never expected it to be this hard.

Everything hurts- his legs, his ankle, his other ankle that he puts too much weight on just to avoid putting it on the injured one. His ego, for not being able to do the most basic things with a ball, and his heart, most of all, for realizing how much longer he has to go before he can go back to the intensity that is his regular play.

His teammates give him pats on the back and shoulders on their way out. He knows at least some of them know how he feels and their smiles and encouragement make him feel better.

He still makes a grumpy call to Leo to complain.

"It's can't be that bad, Cris."

"No, it really is," Cristiano insists. "I can't do anything. It's pathetic. I probably won't play again for ages, won't start the Liga-"

"I know you're exaggerating."

"Yeah," he admits, but his voice is weak, defeated.

"What did the doctor say?" Leo prods.

"Pre-season," Cristiano says and it's obvious how broken up he is about that.

"Well then, you know what you have to do to beat that."

"What?"

"My charity game."

The line is quiet for a while before Cristiano repeats, " _What?_ "

"Consider this your formal invitation to play on my team. Make sure you're ready to play by the end of June."

"Fuck you," Cristiano says, but then he laughs and Leo knows that with this goal in mind Cristiano is feeling better. After all, they're practically the same.

-

Barcelona secures the Liga on a Saturday at the Calderón and Cristiano is there, in a viewing room where fans and press can't see him. He stays there for an hour after the match, until Leo comes in. Leo is smiling and breathing hard and just hugs him, and Cristiano pats his head and laughs at him. "Congrats, _campeón_ ," he says, and bites down the 'don't get used to it because I'm coming after you next year' but Leo knows that's what he's thinking anyway.

His eyes are still twinkling with happiness, excitement and a little bit of champagne when he asks, "Hey, I'm staying with you tonight, that's okay, right?"

"Um, yeah?" Cristiano answers confused. "Don't you have a hotel room?"

"Nope, they're going back tonight."

"And you're not going back with them?"

"No, I'm training with you tomorrow."

Cristiano narrows his eyes as he looks at him, at which Leo shrugs like 'I told you that already'.

"I think you're my best friend," Cristiano says then, and he smiles, and what he means is 'I know you're my best friend' and 'I can't believe you're my best friend' and 'this is awesome'. Leo understands.

-

Real Madrid celebrates La Décima at Cibeles with thousands of fans. Cristiano is there with one crutch now, not really moving around much but still feeling so happy he could burst.

He hasn't played a match since the round of 16 but still Iker puts the cup in his hands and motions for him to raise it up, and the crowd chants 'Cristiano, Cristiano' so loud it's the only thing that can be heard.

Cristiano stares at the white strings that hang from the cup's ears – _the biggest ears_ – and he never ever wants to leave.

-

The flight to Argentina is long and stressful. Cristiano is uncomfortable all throughout it.

Leo sneaks glances at him every once in a while. Eventually, he taps his arm. "I know what you're thinking."

"No, you're not," Cristiano snaps at him. "You're not."

Leo ignores his tone. "You're thinking about how fit you are and if you're ready for these matches and you're scared of them. But Cristiano, you don't need to be. You're _fine_."

Cristiano blinks at him. "It's scary how you read my mind," he says and Leo laughs. "I'm sorry I yelled," he adds.

"It's okay, you know I get it."

Cristiano does.

The seatbelts signs light up and Leo smiles. "Are you ready for the best country in the world?" and Cristiano just laughs. "Wait until you have my mom's food," Leo says, and they both look out the window to search for signs of land.

-

Cristiano wears his Messi's Friends kit and walks out on the pitch. The grass feels soft under his boots and he just walks, slowly, forgets his usual jump (he'll get back to that in official games when the season starts). Their names are being called out and he smiles at the loud cheers.

Leo stands in front of him for the pre-game picture and Cristiano rests his arms on his shoulders. After the flash, Leo turns around and smiles. "You ready for this?"

"Let's show them how it's done."

He assists Leo for a beautiful goal and puts one in the net himself, and they run towards each other, jumping in for a hug and falling down on the grass and laughing. It feels so good to laugh on a pitch.

When Leo helps him up, Cristiano hugs him again. "Thank you," he whispers to him, and Leo squeezes his shoulder in return.

-

It's the first Clásico of the 2013/2014 season. They line up and start shaking hands, the whistle goes off and the ball is in Leo's feet and he runs.

Gerard tackles Cristiano in the 70th minute. The game stops, Leo stares, his heart beating loudly, and then he runs towards them. By the time he gets there though, Gerard is already pulling a chuckling Cristiano up. Leo looks between the two of them and Cristiano pats his head before placing the ball on the ground and taking three steps back and a deep breath, settling into his familiar free kick position. Leo groans and walks back to form the wall. When Cristiano shoots the ball, Leo jumps. Somehow, his head connects with the ball and it goes out of play. Cristiano glares at him and he smiles, sticks his tongue out and takes off running.

When the match ends, they link their arms and walk together to the tunnels. Cristiano smiles at him before they part to their respective dressing rooms and mouths, "Talk to you later". It's so weird, Leo thinks to himself, but he likes it very much.


End file.
